PHILIPPINES
Health staff ordered to stay
The government has barred doctors, nurses and other health workers from leaving for overseas work as the nation seeks to stem the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bureau of Immigration said. The temporary halt follows an order on Thursday last week by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, bureau spokeswoman Dana Sandoval said in text message. It would last for the duration of the nation’s state of emergency, the employment agency’s order said. The nation, which sends thousands of medical practitioners to work overseas, must now reinforce a healthcare system overwhelmed by the pandemic and weakened by deaths and infection of more than 200 health workers. The nation only has six doctors for every 10,000 people, according to the WHO, among the lowest in the region. Singapore’s ratio is almost 23 and Malaysia at 15.36. The ban covers 12 other jobs, including medical equipment operation and repair. More than 30,000 doctors, nurses, medical technicians, caregivers left the nation in 2010, the latest available data showed. The country had 4,076 coronavirus cases as of Thursday, with deaths reaching 203, including at least a dozen health workers.
POLAND
Infections might peak soon
The country might see the peak of coronavirus infections in the coming days, government spokesman Piotr Muller said yesterday. “It seems that if we will maintain our discipline, there is a chance that this infection rise may reach its maximum in coming days, to gradually slow down later,” Muller told public broadcaster TVP Info. Earlier, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the country might see a peak of infections next month or in June. The government reported 5,575 confirmed coronavirus cases and 174 deaths as of Thursday.
YEMEN
First virus case confirmed
The internationally recognized government yesterday announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the country, stoking fears that an outbreak could devastate an already crippled healthcare system. The national emergency committee for COVID-19 in southeastern Hadramout Governorate said on Twitter that the patient was being treated and was in a stable condition, without providing further details. Repeated bombings over five years of war have destroyed or closed more than half of the nation’s health facilities. Deep poverty, dire water shortages and a lack of adequate sanitation have also made it a breeding ground for disease. A Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels this week declared a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
Millions of dollars have poured into bets on who will win the US presidential election after a last-minute court ruling opened up gambling on the vote, upping the stakes on a too-close-to-call race between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump that has already put voters on edge. Contracts for a Harris victory were trading between 48 and 50 percent in favor of the Democrat on Friday on Interactive Brokers, a firm that has taken advantage of a legal opening created earlier this month in the country’s long running regulatory battle over election markets. With just a month
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
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